Stop the Assassination of Iraqi Academics ! A campaign of The BRussells Tribunal and DOSSIER PART 3: Overview CONTENTS: - Iraqis struggle over Baath purge - CS Monitor, 26 June 2003 - Turi Munthe Diary - 10 July 2003 - Intellectual Life and Academic Conditions in Post-War Baghdad [PDF] - 15 July 2003. - Between Saddam and the American Occupation: Iraq's Academic Community Struggles for Autonomy - April 2004. - The best university in Iraq. Imagine the rest - The Guardian, 23 Sept 2004 - Israeli secret agents killed 310 Iraqi scientists (30 Oct 2004) - What is the U.S. role in Iraq‘s dirty war? - 16 March 2006. - The Iraqi brain drain - Guardian, 24 March 2006. - UNESCO Director-General condemns campaign of violence against Iraqi academics - 05 April 2006. - Killings lead to brain drain from Iraq, Telegraph, 17 April 2006. - Iraq Violence Leading to Academic Brain Drain - Aaron Glantz, 05 Oct 2006. - Iraq's universities and schools near collapse as teachers and pupils flee - The Guardian, 05 Oct 2006. - Iraqi intellectuals seeking exile - 18 Oct 2006. - Letter Regarding Murder of Two Professors - AAUP, 10 Nov 2006. - SAR calls for urgent action to protect Iraqi higher education - SAR 14 Nov 2006. - Ghosts of Jadiriyah. A survivor's testimony - Max Fuller, 14 Nov 2006. - Education Ministry kidnappings reflect plight of Iraqi academics - SF Chronicle, 15 Nov 2006. - Academics in Iraq: a vanishing breed? - 16 Nov 2006 - Genocide against Iraqi academics? - Al Jazeera.com, 19 Nov 2006. - The war on intellectuals claims lives and hope - Sami Ramadani, THES, 24 Nov 2006. - Iraq's violent 'brain drain' called a threat to future - Boston Globe, 30 Nov 2006. - UCU calls on members to support Iraqi academics - 30 Nov 2006. 1 Stop the Assassination of Iraqi Academics ! A campaign of The BRussells Tribunal and - Iraq's universities are in meltdown - Independent, 07 Dec 2006. - Iraqi Professionals Targeted for Abduction, Murder - Antiwar.com, 07 Dec 2006. - Professors in penury - The Guardian, 12 Dec 2006. - Mandatory university attendance in unstable Iraq angers many - 20 Dec 2006. - Iraqi academics at grave risk - Education International, 01 Jan 2007. - Iraq's academics targeted by militias - BBC, 05 Jan 2007. - The exodus of academics has lowered educational standards - IRIN, 7 Jan 2007. - Double bombing kills 65 students at Iraqi university - The independent - 17 Jan 2007. - Bombing latest blow to colleges - Wash. Times, 19 Jan 2007. - University Failures Threaten Iraq's Professionals - NPR, 29 Jan 2007 - Violence escalates against students and teachers in Iraq - WSWS, 31 Jan 2007. - Iraqi Education System Caught in Crossfire of Continued Conflict - PBS, 08 Feb 2007. - Bomber strikes near Baghdad college - Al Jazeera, 16 Feb 2006. - ‗Security forces‘ rob Baghdad academics - The Times - 17 Feb 2007. - Iraqi Professors Targeted in Baghdad Security - 21 Feb 2007. - Death batters at the doors of Iraq‘s universities - 28 Feb 2007. - Iraqi Scholars fighting for an education - BBC, 24 March 2007. - Hassan Khalid Hayderi, Iraq ―Either you give us good marks or you will die" - IRIN, 05 April 2007. - Blood on Textbooks: Campuses Under Fire - 16 April 2007 - Iraq‘s education system on the verge of collapse - Dirk Adriaensens, BRussells Tribunal, 18 April 2007. - Despite Baghdad "Security" plan: increase in assassinations of Iraqi academics - Dirk Adriaensens, BRussells Tribunal, 19 April 2007. - Doctor father who was never to see his son - Sunday Times, 29 April 2007. - Lessons in war: Iraq's public education in crisis - MSNBC, 14 May 2007. - Iraq's Universities Near Collapse - The Chronicle Of Higher Education, 18 May 2007. - Extremists threaten new gov‘t Internet project in universities - Irin, 27 May 2007. 2 Stop the Assassination of Iraqi Academics ! A campaign of The BRussells Tribunal and READ ALSO DOSSIER PART 1: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/pdf/AcademicsDossier.pdf 1. Context 2. Urgent Appeal to Save Iraq’s Academics 3. Selected Principal Endorsers of the Appeal 4. Selected Media Reports until April 2006 5. List of Assassinated Academics 6. Frequently Asked Questions 7. UNHCR Guidelines on Asylum 8. The BRussells Tribunal Committee READ ALSO DOSSIER PART 2: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/pdf/AcademicsDossier2.pdf 1. The Madrid International Seminar on the Assassination of Iraqi Academics (p 2) 2. Call for assistance in documenting and registering assassinated Iraqi academics (p 32) 3. Action Needed Over Detention of Iraqi Education Ministry Officials. Unknown numbers murdered, dozen still illegally held (p 33) 4. Selected Media Reports from April 2006 (p 38) 5. Ghosts of Jadiriyah. A survivor's testimony (p 96) WEBSITES: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/ Email: [email protected] http://iraqsolidarity.org Email : [email protected] 3 Stop the Assassination of Iraqi Academics ! A campaign of The BRussells Tribunal and - Iraqis struggle over Baath purge - CS Monitor, 26 June 2003 from the June 26, 2003 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0626/p06s01-woiq.html Iraqis struggle over Baath purge A US campaign to eliminate Baath Party influence in Iraq is being criticized for inflexibility. By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor BAGHDAD - When it comes to assessing the US campaign to cleanse Iraq of Saddam Hussein loyalists, one need look no further than an assistant's desk at Baghdad University. Piled two feet high are petitions from students and faculty alike, appealing to US officials for favorite professors to be exempt from a decree that fires all ranking Baath Party members. This heavy pile is bursting the sides of a thick plastic shopping bag; the handles have ripped under the weight. And these are just a few of the hundreds of petitions that have been submitted - from universities only - that illustrate the difficulties of scrubbing Iraq clean of the old regime. While the surge of guerrilla attacks against coalition forces grab headlines - including the death of six British military policemen in southern Iraq on Tuesday - real change in Iraq is being engineered here, at government institutions. The result so far is a tension among Iraqis about a Draconian decree, that paints the problem of de- Baathification in black and white - while in fact, many Iraqis say, it should be shades of gray. "It's not a witch hunt. It's a very careful process - as careful as we can make it in this demanding situation," says Andrew Erdmann, a US State Department policymaker who is the top American appointed to the higher education ministry of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). He is swamped with issues emerging at university campuses across Iraq, and trying to focus on meeting emergency needs to complete an extended school year by the end of July. That means fans, air conditioners - US troops delivered a consignment to the Technical College Wednesday - and even printing examination booklets. Jubilant scenes as students sit for class portraits, Mr. Erdmann says, are "tangible symbols that students feel that their life is progressing, that there is something beyond." But de-Baathification is complicating the picture. According to his own proclamation on May 16, only the American chief of the occupation authority in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, can approve individual exemptions. The decree purges the top four ranks of the Baath Party. Party apparatchiks with critical skills, who "demonstrated" that they were not committed to the Baath Party under Mr. Hussein would be most likely candidates. "Some people stepped forward to protect people. Some did not. Those things matter," says Erdmann. There are exceptions, though "the idea that you became a senior party member by accident - it usually doesn't happen." 4 Stop the Assassination of Iraqi Academics ! A campaign of The BRussells Tribunal and But some say it did happen to Hussam al-Rawi, a former ranking Baath Party member and British- educated former head of the architecture department, who now must "volunteer" to finish the year, until his status is resolved. At least one fellow professor says Mr. Rawi came to her aid in the past, against an unscrupulous Baathist who deliberately misinterpreted her work, to get her into trouble. "They did this [de-Baathification] without considering who were good people, and who were bad people," says Janon Kadhim, an architecture professor who says that Rawi "protected" her reputation. "This is not an American way of working," says Rawi, who lived in Britian for 16 years and was elected as a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. "A lot of skilled workers are out of jobs now," Rawi says. Mr. Bremer has "made enemies of millions of people." During a brief interview on campus, two separate groups of concerned students, with folders and books tucked under their arms, came to Rawi to inquire, "Are you back with us?" and to wish him luck. Students and other faculty have signed a petition for an exemption for Rawi - adding to the pile of thousands awaiting Bremer's review. Upon noticing the presence of a Western reporter, one student, unbidden and within minutes, collected five others, to vouch for their professor. "Of course we don't accept what [the CPA] decides," says student Mohamed Jassim. "He studied abroad and we will lose him. Whoever comes after can't be as good." "Dr. Hussam is a good professor and teacher, who helped us a lot," says another student, Haidar Faleh. "We want him to stay." "In my case, if I were to leave the party, I would have had to flee the country, or would have been questioned," says Rawi, whose portrait hangs with those of a string of other past department heads, in the faculty room. "They shouldn't draw a parallel between the Baath and Nazism, but between Saddam and Stalin. Look at [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. He was a former KGB agent." That doesn't mean that all Iraqi professors share Rawi's apparent popularity.